C. — who was fellow-citizen with an evil daemon of fleshly

desire.
H. These things, then, we have set down as a few out of many. For innumerable are the attempts of their foUy, silly and crazy. But since we have, to the best of oar ability, exposed their unknowable Gnosis, it seems best to set down the following also.
This is a Psalm which they have improvised ; by means of which they fancy they thus sing the praises of all the mysteries of their Error.*
1 A lacuna in the Ck>dex which is thus completed by S. and C.
« Cf. Is. xl 16.
' That is, Messiah-ites, or Anointed-ones.
* Cf. 1 Sam. xvi. 13. & 1 Sam. X. 1.
* The text of this Hymn is in places very corrupt; I have followed Oruioe's emendations mostly. Sclmeidewin, for some reason or other which he does not state, omits it bodily from his Latin translation.
THE MYTH OP MAN IN THE MYSTERIES 191
J.^ "First [was there] Mind the (Generative* Law of AU;» Second to the Firstborn was Liquid Chaos ; Third Soul through toil received the Law. Wherefore, with a deer's* form surrounding her, She labours at her task beneath Death's rule. Now, holding sway,^ she sees the Light ; And now, cast into piteous plight, she weeps ; Now she weeps, and now rejoices ; Now she weeps, and now is judged ; Now is judged, and now she dieth ; Now is bom, with no way out for her ; in misery She enters in her wandering the labyrinth of ills. (? C. — ^And Jesus • said) : O Father, see ! [Behold] the struggle still of ills on earth !
1 This attribution may be thought by some to be questionable ; bat as it is far more similar to the thought-sphere of J. than to that of C, I have so assigned it. It belonged to the same circles to which we must assign the sources of J.
' 7criic^s — ^perhaps "general" simply.
5 Or, of the Whole.
^ The Codex has Ifxa^or, which, vrith Miller, we correct into ikd^wv. Is this a parallel with the "lost sheep" idea? Can it possibly connect vrith the conception underlying the phrases on the golden tablets found in tombs of "Orphic" initiates, on the territory of ancient Sybaris : " A kid thou hast fallen into the milk" ("Timpone grande" Tablet a, Naples Museum, Kaibel, C.I.Q.I.S., 642) ; and, "A kid I have fallen into milk" ("Cam- pagno'' Tablet a, ibid., 641, and Append., p. 668}? But this connection is very hazy ; it more probably suggests the nebris or ''fawn-skin" of the Bacchic initiates (see my Orpheui, "The Fawn-skin," pp. 243 ff., for an explanation). Cruice proposes to substitute i9aphif (" watery ") ; but there seems no reason why we should entirely reject the reading of the Codex, especially as C.'s suggestion breaks the rule of the "more difficult" reading being the preferable.
^ $€unktla¥ — kingdom or kingship.
* The Codex reads thw 9ifitrovs itrhp. Can this possibly be a glossed and broken-down remains of 'lam z^iiaap (lad Zeesar) t
192 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
Far from Thy Breath ^ away she * wanders !
She seeks to flee the bitter Chaos,'
And knows not how she shall pass through.
Wherefore, send me, 0 Father !
Seals in my hands, I will descend ;
Through Mons universal will I make a Path ;
Through Mysteries all I'll open up a Way !
And Forms of Gods will I display ; *
The secrets of the Holy Path I will hand on.
And call them Gnosis." *
Conclusion of Analysis
All this may have seemed, quite naturally, con- temptible foolishness to the theological prejudices of our worthy Church Father ; but it is difficult for me, even in the twentieth century, not to recognise the beauty of this fine Mystic Hymn, and I hope it may be equally difficult for at least some of my readers.
But to return to the consideration of our much over- written Source.
This Source is plainly a commentary, or elaborate paraphrase, of the Recitation Ode, " Whether, blest Child of Kronos," which comes at the end (§ 30) and not, as we should expect, at the beginning, and has probably been displaced by Hippolytus. It is an exegetical
* Cmice thinks this refers to the breath of God's anger ; but surely it refers to the Holy Spirit of Gkxi ?
' Se. the soul, the " wandering sheep."
» Cy. "the bitter Water," or "Darkness," or "Chaos," of the Sethian system in Hipp., Philos., v. 19 ; and see the note to the comments following Hermes-Prayer v., p. 92.
* Tlie Logos in His descent through the spheres takes on the Forms of all the Powers.
^ Is it, however, possible that the original Hymn had Naas (Niay) and not Qnosis (Tt^Aaty) ?
THE MYTH OF MAN IN THE MYSTERIES 193
commentary written from the standpoint of the Anthropos-theory of the Mysteries (? originally Chal- daean), the Man-doctrine.
This commentary seems for the most part to run on so connectedly, that we can almost persuade ourselves that we have most of it before us, the lacunce being practically insignificant. Paragraphs 6 and 7 S., how- ever, are plainly misplaced, and §§ 17 and 18 S. also as evidently break the connection.^
/■
Thx Hellenist Commsntatob
The writer is transparently a man learned in the various Mystery-rites, and his information is of the greatest possible importance for a study of this ex- ceedingly obscure subject from an historical standpoint.
With § 8 S., and the Egyptian Mystery-doctrine, we come to what is of peculiar interest for our present Trismegistic studies. Osiris is the Heavenly Man, the Logos; not only so, but in straitest connection with this tradition we have an exposition of the Hermes- doctrine, set forth by a system of allegorical interpreta- tions of the Bible of Hellas — the Poems of the Homeric cycle. Here we have the evident ^yncrosia Thoth= Osiris = Hermes, a Hermes of the "Greek Wisdom/' as the Secitation Ode phrases it, and a doctrine which H., basing himself on the commentator (§ 10), squarely asserts the Greeks got from Egypt.
Nor is it without importance for us that in closest connection with Hermes there follow the apparently misplaced sections 17 and 18, dealing with the "Heavenly Horn," or drinking-horn, of the Greek Wisdom, and the " Cup " of Anacreon ; with which we may compare the Crater, Mixing-bowl or Cup, in which,
1 Of. R. 99, 100 ; and 100, n. 4. VOL. I. 13
194 THRICE-OREATEST HSRMSS
according to Plato's TinuBus, the Creator mingled and mixed the elements and souls, and also the spiritual Cup of the Mind in our Trismegistic treatise, "The Crater or Monas," C. H,, iv. (v.).
But above all things is it astonishing that we should find the commentator in S. quoting (§ 9) a logos from a document which, as we have shown in the note appended to the passage, is in every probability a l^ismegistic treatise of the Pcemandree type.
The Jewish and Christian Overwriters
This commentary S. was worked over by a Jewish Hellenistic mystic J., whose general ideas and method of exegesis are exactly paralleled by those of Phila In my opinion, he was a contemporary of that period and a member of one of those communities whom Philo classes generally as Therapeut. He was, moreover, not a worshipper of the serpent, but a worshipper of that Glorious Seality symbolised as the Serpent of Wisdom, and this connects him with initiation into Egypto-Chaldaean or Ghaldffio-Egyptian Mysteries. These he finds set forth allegorically in the prophetical scriptures of his race. His quotations from the LXX. show him to be, like Philo, an Alexandrian Hellenistic Jew ; the LXX. was his Targum
J. again was overwritten by C, a Christian Gnostic, no enemy of either J. or S., but one who claimed that he and his were the true realisers of all that had gone before ; he is somewhat boastful, but yet recognises that the Christ-doctrine is not an innovation but a consummation. The phenomena presented by the New Testament quotations of C. are, in my opinion, of extra- ordinary interest, especially his quotations from or parallels with the Fourth Gospel. His quotations from
THE MYTH OF MAN IN THB MTSTBRIBS 195
or paraUels vrith the Synoptics are almost of the same nature as those of Justin; he is rather dealing with ** Memoirs of the Apostles '* than with verbatim quota- tions from our stereotyped Gospel& His parallels with the Fourth Grospel also seem to me to open up the question as to whether or no he is in touch with •* Sources " of that ** Johannine " document.
On top of all our strata and deposits, we have— to continue the metaphor of excavation, and if it be not thought somewhat uncharitable — the ref utatory rubbish of Hippolytus, which need no longer detain us here.
I would, therefore, suggest that C. is to be placed somewhere about the middle of the second century A.D.; J. is contemporary with Philo— say the first quarter of the first century A.D. ; the Pagan commentator of S. is prior to J. — say somewhere in the last half of the first century B.C. ; while the Secitation Ode is still earlier, and can therefore be placed anywhere in the early Hellenistic period, the termini being thus 300-50 B.C.1
And if the redactor or commentator in S. is to be placed somewhere in the last half of the first century b.c. (and this is, of course, taking only the minimum of liberty), then the Poemandres type of our literature, which J. quotes as scripture, must, in its original Greek form, be placed back of that — say at least in the first half of the first century B.O., as a moderate estimate.' If those dates are not proved,
^ Wilamowitz' hesitating attribution of it to the reign of Hadrian (117-138 a.d.) is, in my opinion, devoid of any objec- tive support whatever. (See R., p. 102.) Reitzenstein himself (p. 165) would place it in the second century b.c.
* Incidentallj also it may be pointed out that this analysis gives the coup de grdce to Salmon's contention (" The Cross-refer- ences in the Philosophumena," Hmnathena^ 1885, v. 389 ff.) that the great systems of the Qnosis made known to us only by Hippolytus are all the work of a single forger who imposed
196 THRICB-GREATBST HBRMES
I am at anyrate fairly confident they cannot be disproved.
ZOSIMUS AND THE AnTHROPOS-DOCTRINK
That, moreover, the Anthrdpos-doctrine, to the spirit of which the whole commentary of our S. exegete is accommodated, was also fundamental with the ad- herents of the Trismegistic tradition, may be clearly seen from the interesting passage (which we give in the Fragments at the end of the third Volume) of Zosimus, a member of what Reitzenstein calls the Pcemandres Community, who flourished somewhere at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth century a.d.^
The sources of Zoeimus for the Anthrdpos-doctrine, he tells us, are, in addition to the Books of Hermes, certain translations into Greek and Egyptian of books containing traditions (mystery-traditions, presumably) of the Chaldeans, Parthians, Modes, and Hebrews on the subject. This statement is of the very first im- portance for the history of Gnosticism as well as for appreciating certain elements in Trism^isticism. Though the indication of this literature is vague, it nevertheless mentions four factors as involved in the Hebrew tradition ; the Gnostic Hebrews, as we should
upon the credulity of the heresy-hunting Bishop of Portns. This contention, though to our mind one of the moet striking instances of " the good Homer nodding," was nevertheless practi- cally endorsed bj Stahelin {Die gnoitiiche QueUen HippolyU in mrier HaupUchrifi gsgen die Haeretikeriy 1890 ; in TexU u. UfUer- euehungenj VI.X who went over the whole ground opened up by Salmon with minute and scrupulous industry. The genend weakness of this extraordinary hypothesis of forgery has, how- ever, been well pointed out by De Faye in his IrUrodudian d ftiude du Qnoeticieme au IP et au III* Si^U (Paris, 1903), pp. 24 fL; though De Faye also maintains a late date. > R. p. 9.
THE MYTH OF MAN IN THE MYSTERIES 197
expect, were handing on elements from Chaldsean, Parthian, and Median traditions. Translations of these books were to be found scattered throughout i^pt, and especially in the great library at Alexandria.
There is, in my opinion, no necessity precisely, with Beitzenstein (p. 106, n. 6), to designate these books the "Ptolemaic Books/' and so to associate them with a notice found in the apocryphal ** Eighth Book of Moses," where, together with that of the Arehangelie Book of Moses, there is mention of the Fifth Book of the " Ptolemaic Books," described as a book of multifarious wisdom under the title ** One and All," and containing the account of the ** Grenesis of Fire and Darkness." ^
Another source of Zosimus was the Pinax of Bitos or Bitys, of whom we shall treat in considering the information of Jamblichus.
From all of these indications we are assured that there was already in the first centuries B.a a well- developed Hellenistic doctrine of the descent of man from the Man Above, and of his return to that heavenly state by his mastery of the powers of the cosmos.
Philo of Alexandria on the Man-Doctrinb
This date is further confirmed by the testimony of Philo (e. 30 B.C.-45 A.D.).
For, quoting the verse: "We are all sons of One Man,"^ he addresses those who are "companions of wisdom and knowledge" as those who are "Sons of one and the same Father — no mortal father, but an immortal Sire, the Man of God, who being the Reason {Logos) of the Eternal, is of necessity himself eternal." '
And again, a little further on :
1 Dieterich, Abraxas^ 203 ff. * Qen. zlii. 11.
3 De Canfus. Ling., § 11 ; M. i. 411, P. 326 (Ri. iL 267).
198 THRICB-ORBATB8T HERMKS
"And if a man shoold not as yet have the good fortune to be worthy to be called Son of God, let him strive manfully to set himself in order ^ according to His First-born Reason (Logos), the Oldest Angel, who is as though it were the Angel-chief of many names ; for he is cidled Dominion, and Name of God, and Season, and Man-af ter-His-Iikeness, and Seeing Israel
'* And for this reason I was induced a little before to praise the principles of those who say: 'We are all sons of One Man.' For even if we have not yet become fit to be judged Sons of God, we may at any rate be Sons of His Eternal likeness, His Most Holy Season (Logos); for Season, the Eldest of all Angels, is God's Likeness [or Image]."'
Thus Philo gives us additional proof, if more were needed, for the full Anthropos-doctrine was evidently fundamental in his circle — that is to say, in the thought-atmosphere of the Hellenistic theology, or the religio-philosophy, or theoeophy, of his day, the be- ginning of the first century A.D.
This date alone is sufiScient for our purpose ; but it is not too bold a statement even to say that the Man -Mystery was a fundamental concept of the brilliant period of the Hellenistic syncretism which succeeded to the founding of Alexandria — the period of the expansion of Hellas beyond her national borders; in other words, her birth into the greater world.
It is enough to know that the Mystery was hidden and yet revealed in the shadow-garments of Chaldsean, Babylonian, Mi^an, Phoenician, Hebrew, Egyptian, Phrygian, Thracian, and Greek mystery-traditions. It was, in brief, fundamental in all such wisdom-shows, and necessarily so, for it was the Christ-Mystery.
* To make himBelf a amnoi like the Great OotmoiL s Ibid,, § 88 ; M. i. 426, 487, P. 341 (Ri. ii. 879).
VIII
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY
Concerning Philo and his Method
Seeing that a study of the Trismegistic literature is essentially a study in Hellenistic theology, no introduc- tion to this literature would be adequate which did not insist upon the utility of a careful review of the writings of Philo, the famous Jewish Hellenist of Alexandria, and which did not point to the innumerable parallels which are traceable between the basic principles of the Jewish philosopher-mystic and the main ideas embodied in our tractatea To do this, however, in detail would require a volume, and as we are restricted to the narrow confines of a chapter, nothing but a few general outlines can be sketched in, the major part of our space being reserved for a consideration of what Philo has to say of the Logos, or Divine Season of things, the central idea of his cosmos.
In perusing the voluminous writings ^ of our witness, the chief point on which we would insist at the very outset, is that we are not studying a novel system devised by a single mind, we are not even face to face with a new departure in method, but that the writings
1 In all, upwards of sixty Philonean traetates are preserved to us ; and in addition we have also numerous fragments from lost works.
109
200 THRICE-OREATEST HERMES
of our Alexandrian^ came at the end of a line of predecessors; true that Philo is now, owing to the preservation of his writings, by far the most dis- tinguished of such writers, but he follows in their steps. His method of allegorical interpretation is no new invention,' least of all is his theology.
In brief, Philo is first and foremost an '' apologist " ; his writings are a defence of the Jewish myths and prophetic utterances, interpreted allegorically, in terms not of Hellenic philosophy proper, but rather of Hellen- istic theology, that is, of philosophy theologised, or of theology philosophised ; in other words, in the language of the current cultured Alexandrian religio-philosophy of his day.
As Edersheim, in his admirable article,' says, speaking
■ Fhilo is known to the Jews as Tedidyah ba-Alaklisaiideh.
« Thus, in D. V. C, § 3 ; M. ii. 476, P. 893 (Ri. v. 300, C. 65), referring to his beloved Therapeuta, he himself says: "They have also works of ancient authors who were once heads of their school, and left behind them many monuments of the method used in allegorical works." Nor was this " allegonsing " Jewish only ; it was common. It was applied to Homer ; it was the method of the Stoics. Indeed, this ^Hreatment (9ffpcrf(a)of myths" was the only way in which the results of the philosophy and science of the time could be brought into touch with popular faith.
The text I use is that of Richter (M. C. E.X PhiUmii Judtei Opera Omnia^ in BibUoiKeoa Sacra Pairvm Ecdaim Ormeorum (Leipzig, 1888-1830X 8 vols. M. refers to the edition of Mangey ; P. to the Paris edition ; RL stands for that of Richter— thus abbreviated so as not to be confused with R., which elsewhere stands for Reitzenstein ; C. stands for Conybeare's critical text of the D. V. C, (Oxford, 1895X the only really critical text of any tractate which we so far possess.
s ^'Philo^" in Smith and Wace's Diet, of Chrid. Biog. (London, 1887X i^- 357-388 — by far the best general study on the subject in Eii^lish. Drununond's (J.) two volumes, PhUo Judaui^ or Uu AUaoandrian PkiUmphy (Lcoidon, 1888X may also be consulted, but they leave much to be desired. The only English translation
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 201
of this blend of the faith of the synagogue with the thinking of Greece: "It can scarcely be said that in the issue the substance and spirit were derived from Judaism, the form from Greeca Bather does it often seem as if the substance had been Greek and only the form Hebrew."
But here Edersheim seems to be not sufficiently alive to the fact that the ** Greek thinking " was already in Hellenistic circles strongly theologised and firmly wedded to the ideas of apocalypsis and revelation. How, indeed, could it have been otherwise in Egypt, in the face of the testimony of our present work ?
Philo, then, does but follow the custom among the cultured of his day when he treats the stories of the patriarchs as myths, and the literally intractable narratives as the substance of an ethical mythology. It was the method of the religio-philosophy of the time, which found in allegorical interpretation the '' antidote of impiety," and by its means unveiled the supposed under-meaning (inrovoia) of the myths.
The importance of Philo, then, lies not so much in tus originality, as in the fact that he hands on much that had been evolved before him; for, as Edersheim says, and as is clear to any careful student of the Philonean tractates: "His own writings do not give the impression of originality. Besides, he repeatedly refers to the allegorical interpretation of others, as well as to canons of allegorism apparently generally recognised. He also enumerates differing allegorical interpretations of the same subjects. All this affords evidence of the existence of a school of Hellenist [Hellenistic, rather] interpretation " (p. 362).
if that of Tonge (0. D.X The Workt of PhUo Judceui (London, 1854} in Bohn'8 Library ; but it ia by no means aatiafactory, and I have in emj instance of quotation made my own yernon.
202 THRICE-GRSATBST HBRMES
But this does not hold good only for the interpreta- tion of "the myths of Israel" by Hellenistic Jews; it holds good of the whole cultured religious world of the time, and pre-eminently of the Hellenistic schools of every kind in Egypt. In brief, Fhilo's philosophy was often already philosophised myth before he ingeniously brought it into play for the interpretation of Hebrew story.
In short, the tractates of Philo and our Trismegistic sermons have both a common background — Hellenistic theology or theosophy. Both use a common language.
Philo, of course, hke the rest of his contemporaries, had no idea of criticism in the modem sense ; he was a thorough - going apologist of the Old Covenant documents. These were for him in their entirety the inerrant oracles of Grod Himself ; nay, he even went to the extent of believing the apologetic Greek version to be literally inspired.^
Nevertheless he was, as a thinker, confronted with the same kind of difficulties as face us to-day with im- measurably greater distinctnesa The ideas of God, of the world-order, and of the nature of man, were so far advanced in his day beyond the frequently crude and repugnant representations found in the ancient scrip- tures of his people, that he found it impossible to claim for them on their surface-value the transcendency of the last word of wisdom from God to man, at anyrate among the cultured to whom he addressed himself. These difficulties he accordingly sought to remove by an allegorical interpretation, whereby be read into them the views of the highest philosophical and religious environment of his time.
Having no idea of the philosophy of history, or of the history of religion, or of the canons of literary » Or " divinely prompted" (2>« Ftt. Afw., ii. 5-7).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 203
criticism, as we now understand these things, he never stopped to enquire whether the writers of the ancient documents intended their narratives to be taken as myths embodying an esoteric meaning ; much less did he ask himself, as we ask ourselves to-day, whether these writers had not in all probability frequently written up the myths of other nations into a history of their own patriarchs and other worthies ; on the contrary, he relieved them of all responsibility, and entirely eliminated the natural human element, by his theory of prophecy, which assumed that they had acted as impersonal, passive instruments of the Divine inspiration.
But even Philo, when he came to work it out, could not maintain this absolutism of inspiration, and so we find him elsewhere unable to ascribe a consistent level of inspiration to his '' Moses," who of course, in Philo's belief, wrote the Pentateuch from the first to the last word. Thus we find him even in the "Five Fifths" making a threefold classification of inspiration : (i) The Sacred Oracles "spoken directly of God by His in- terpreter the prophet"; (ii.) Those prophetically de- livered "in the form of question and answer"; and (iii) Those "proceeding from Moses himself while in some state of inspiration and under the influence of the deity."!
But what is most pleasant is to find that Philo admitted the great philosophers of Greece into his holy assembly, and though he gives the pre-eminence to Moses, yet it is, as it were, to a first among equals — a ¥dde-minded tolerance that was speedily forgotten in the bitter theological strife that subsequently broke forth.
1 De Vit, Mos., iu. 23, 84.
204 THRICE-OREATEST HERMES
The Great Importance op his Writinos
But what makes the writings of our Alexandrian so immensely important for us is, that the final decade of his life is contemporary with the coming into manifestation of Christianity in the Graeco-Boman world owing to the energetic propaganda of PauL
Philo was bom somewhere between 30 and 20 B.a, and died about 45 A.D. There is, of course, not a single word in his voluminous writings that can in any way be construed into a reference to Christianity as tradi- tionally understood ; but the language of Philo, if not precisely the diction of the writers of the New Testa- ment documents, has innumerable points of resemblance ¥dth their terminology ; for the language of Hellenistic theology is largely, so to speak, the common tongue of both, while the similarity of many of their ideas is astonishing.
Philo, moreover, was by no means an obscure member of the community to which he belonged ; on the contrary, he was a most distinguished ornament of the enormous Jewish colony of Alexandria, which occupied no less than two out of the five wards of the city.^ His brother, Alexander, was the head of the largest banking firm of the capital of Egypt, which was also the intellectual and commercial centre of the Grseco-Roman world. Indeed, Alexander may be said to have been the Roth- schild of the time. The operations of the firm embraced the contracting of loans for the Imperial House, while the banker himself was a personal friend of the Emperor, and his sons intermarried with the family of the Jewish King Agrippa.
Philo, hkoself, though he would have preferred the solitude of the contemplative life, took an active part
1 For a sketch of ancient Alexandria, see F, F. f*., pp. 96-120.
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 205
in the social life of the great capital ; and, at the time of the greatest difltress of his compatriots in the city, when they were overwhelmed by a violent outbreak of anti-semitism, their lives in danger, their houses plundered, and their ancient privileges confiscated, it was the aged Philo who was chosen as spokesman of (he embassy to Gains Caligula (a.d. 40).
Here, then, we have a man in just the position to know what was going on in the world of philosophy, of letters, and religion, and not only at Alexandria, but also wherever Jewish enterprise — which had then, as it now has, the main commerce of the world in its hands — pushed itself. The news of the world came to Alexandria, and the mercantile marine was largely owned by Hebrews.
Philo is, therefore, the very witness we should choose of all others to question as to his views on the ideas we find in our Trismegistic tractates, and this we may now proceed to do without any further preliminaries.
Ck)NCERNING THB MtBTERIBS
Speaking of those who follow the contemplative lif e,^ Philo writes :
*' Now this natural class of men [lit. race] is to be found in many parts of the inhabited world ; for both the Grecian and non-Grecian world must needs share in the perfect Good." *
In Egypt, he tells us, there were crowds of them in every province, and they were very numerous indeed about Alexandria. Concerning such men Philo tells us elsewhere:
^ For a translation of the famouB tractate on tliis subject, from the recent critical text of Conybeare, see F, F, F,, pp. 66-88. « D. V, a, § 3 ; M. ii. 474, P. 891 (Ri. v. 308, C. 56),
206 THRICB-OREATBST HEBMES
"All those, whether among Greeks or non-Gheeki, who are practisers of wisdom (curinrrcu trw^^\ living a blameless and irreproachable life, determined on doing injury to none, and on not retaliating if injury be done them," avoid the strife of ordinary life, '* in their enthusiasm for a life of peace free from contention."
Thus are they "most excellent contemplators of nature {Oet^poi rff ^Jaca)^) and all things therein; they scrutinise earth and sea, and air and heaven, and the natures therein, their minds responding to the orderly motion of moon and sun, and the choir of all the other stars, both variable and fixed. They have their bodies, indeed, planted on earth below; but for their souls, they have made them wings, so that they speed through aether {aiQepo^arowrei), and gaze on every side upon the powers above, as though they were the true world-citizens, most excellent, who dwell in cosmos as their city ; such citizens as Wisdom hath as her associates, inscribed upon the roll of Virtue, who hath in charge the supervising of the common weaL . . .
"Such men, though [in comparison] but few in number, keep alive the covered spark of Wisdom secretly, throughout the cities [of the world], in order that Virtue may not be absolutely quenched and vanish from our human kind."^
Again, elsewhere, speaking of those who are good and wise, he says :
'* The whole of this company (Olacro^) have voluntarily deprived themselves of the possession of aught in abundance, thinking little of things dear to the flesh. Now athletes are men whose bodies are well cared for and full of vigour, men who make strong the fort, their body, against their soul; whereas the [athletes] of 1 D$ Sept., §§ 3, 4 ; M. ii. S79, P. 1176 (Ri v. 21, 28).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 207
[this] discipline, pale, wasted, and, as it were, reduced to skeletons, sacrifice even the muscles of their bodies to the powers of their own souls, dissolving, if the truth be told, into one form — that of the soul, and by their mind becoming free from body.
'*The earthly element is, therefore, naturally dis- solved and washed away, when the whole mind in its entirety resolves to make itself well-pleasing unto Qod. This race is rare, however, and found with difficulty ; still it is not impossible it should exist." ^
And in another passage, when referring to the small number of the "prudent and righteous and gracious," Philo says :
'* But the ' few,' though rare [to meet with], are yet not non-existent. Both Greece and Barbary [that is, non-Greek lands] bear witness [to them].
*' For in the former there flourished those who are pre-eminently and truly called the Seven Sages^ — though others, both before and after them, in every probability reached the [same] height — whose memory, in spite of their antiquity, has not evanished through the length of time, while that of those of far more recent date has been obliterated by the tide of the n^lect of their contemporaries.
"While in non-Grecian lands, in which the most revered and ancient in such words and deeds [have flourished], are very crowded companies of men of worth and virtue; among the Persians, for example, the [caste] of Magi, who by their careful scrutiny of nature's works for purpose of the gnosis of the truth, in quiet silence, and by means of [mystic] images of piercing clarity (Tpavorrcpatg €fi dcr€criv) are made initiate into the mysteries of godlike virtues, and in their turn initiate [those who come after them]; in 1 De MtU, Nom., § 4 ; M. i. 683, P. 1049 (RL iii 163, 164).
208 TH&ICB-0REATE8T HieRMiKf
India the [caste] of the GynmoeophiBta, who, in addition to their study of the lore of nature, toil in [the fieldi of] morals, and [so] make their whole life a practical example of [their] virtue.
"Nor are Palestine and Syria, in which no small portion of the populous nation of the Jews dwell, unfruitful in worth and virtue. Certain of them aie called Essenes, in number upwards of 4000, aocording to my estimate."^
Fhilo then proceeds to give an account of these famous mystics.
In Egypt itself, however, he selects out of the many communities of the Therapeutse and Therapeutrides (which the Old Latin Version renders CuUans ei CuUrices pidatisf only one special group, mth which be was presumably personally familiar and which was largely Jewish. Of this order (avrrtifjiaf Philo gives us a most graphic account, both of their settlement and mode of life. By means of this intensely interest- ing sketch of the Contemplative or Theoretic life, and by the parallel passages from the rest of Fhilo's works which Conybeare has so industriously marshalled in his ''Testimonia," we are introduced into the environment and atmosphere of these Theoretics, and find ourselves in just such circumstances as would condition the genesis of our Trismegistic literature.
The whole of Philo's expositions revolve round the idea that the truly philosophic life is an initiation into the Divine Mysteries ; for him the whole tradition of Wisdom is necessarily a mystery-tradition. Thus he tells us of his own special Therapeut community, south of Alexandria :
> Quod Om, Prob. L., § 11 ; M. ii 466, P. 876 (Ri. v. 284, 285).
« C, p. 146, 1. 13.
' D. V. C, § 9 ; M. it. 482, P. 900 (Ri. v. 319, C. 111).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 209
'' In every cottage there is a sacred ohamber,^ which is called semneion and monasUrUm,^ in which, in soli- tude, they are initiated into the mysteries of the solemn life."'
With this it will he of interest to compare Matt. ▼L 6 : '* When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in the Hidden ; and thy Father who seeth in the Hidden, shall reward thee. *'
It is said that among the '' Pharisees " there was a prajring-room in every house.
We may also compare with the above reference to the Mysteries Luke xil 2 = Matt. x. 26, from a " source " which promised the revelation of all mysteries, following on the famous logos also quoted in Mark iv. 22 and Luke viii 17 :
"For there is nothing veiled which shall not be revealed, and hidden which shall not be made known." " Therefore, whatsoever ye (M., I) have spoken in dark- ness, shall be heard in the light, and what ye have spoken (M., heard) in the ear in the closets, shall be heralded forth on the house-tops."
Both Evangelists have evidently adapted their " source " to their own purposes, but the main sense of the original form is not difficult to recover.
It is further of interest to compare with the first clause of the above passages the new-found logos:
and that which is hidden from thee, shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing hidden that shall
1 Or shrine — a small room or closet.
* That iBy a sanctuary or monastery, the latter in the sense of a place where one can be alone or in solitude. This is the first use of the term ** monastery " known in classical antiquity, and, as we lea, it bears a special and not a general meaning.
» Ibid,, § 3 ; M. ii. 476, P. 892 (RL v. 309, C. 60>
VOL. L 14
210 THRIGB-GREATKST HERMES
not be made manifest, nor buried that shall not be raised." 1
But there are other and more general mTsteries referred to in Fhilo ; for, in speaking of the command that the unholy man who is a speaker of evil against divine things, should be removed from the most holy places and punished, our initiated philosopher bursts forth:
" Drive forth, drive forth, ye of the closed lips, and ye revealers' of the divine mysteries,' the promiscuous and rabble crowd of the defiled — souls unamenable to purification, and hard to wash clean, who wear ears that cannot be closed, and tongues that cannot be kept mthin the doors [of their lips] — organs that they ever keep ready for their own most grievous mischance, hearing all things and things not law [to hear]." *
Of these "ineffable mysteries,"* he elsewhere says, in explaining that the wives of the patriarchs stand allegorically as types of virtues :
" But in order that we may describe the conception and birth-throes of the Virtues, let bigots^ stop their ears, or else let them depart For that we give a higher teaching of the mysteries divine, to mystae who are worthy of the holiest rites [of all].
"And these are they who, free from arrogance, practise real and truly genuine piety, free from display
1 Qrenfell and Hunt, New Sayingi of Jeiut (London, 1904X p. 18.
* Lit, ye mystn and hierophantti.
' Lit., oigiea — ^that ia, "burstings forth" of inspiration, or reyealings.
* De Prqf., § 16 ; M. L 658, P. 402 (Ri. iil 128). » Leg, AUeg,, i. 39, 4.
* tffitf^ftal/Mrffs — here meaning the literalists ; it generally signifies the religions in a good sense, and the superstitions in a bad one.
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 211
of any kind. But unto them who are afflicted with incorrigible ill — the vanity of words, cloee-sticking unto names, and empty show of manners, who measure purity and holiness by no other rule [than this] — [for them] we will not play the part of hierophant." ^
Touching on the mystery of the Virgin-birth, to which we will refer later on, Philo continues :
" These things receive into your souls, ye mystae, ye whose ears are purified, as truly sacred mysteries, and see that ye speak not of them to any who may be without initiation, but storing them away within your hearts, guard well your treasure-house; not as a treasury in which gold and silver are laid up, things that do perish, but as the pick and prize of all posses- sions— the knowledge of the Cause [of all] and Virtue, and of the third, the child of both." ^
Now the " Divine Spirit" {6€iov xi/ci/iua), says Philo, does not remain among the many, though it may dwell with them for a short time.
'' It is [ever] present with only one class of men — with those who, having stripped themselves of all the things in genesis, even to the innermost veil and garment of opinion, come unto God with minds unclothed and naked.
''And so Moses, having fixed his tent outside the camp-^that is, the whole of the body * — that is to say, having made firm his mind, so that it does not move, begins to worship God; and, entering into the dark- ness, the unseen land, abideth there, being initiated into the most holy mysteriea And he becomes, not only a mystes, but also a hierophant of revelations,^ and
I De Cherub., § 12 ; M. i. 146, P. 116 (Ri. I 208). « Ibid., § 14 ; M. i. 147, P. 116 (RL i. 210). 5 Cf. Leg. AUig., ii. § 16 ; M. i. 76, P. 1097 (Ri. L 105). * Lit., orgies.
212 THRIOS-GRSATEST HRRMES
teacher of divine things, which he will indicate to thoee who have had their ears made pure.
" With such kind of men, then, the Divine Spirit is ever present, guiding their every way aright" ^
Kef erring to the ritual sacrifices of a heifer and two rams, Philo declares that the slaying of the second ram, and the symbolic rite of sprinkling certain portions d the bodies of the priests with its blood, was ordained "for the highest perfectioning of the consecrated by means of the purification of chastity ^ — which [ram] he [* Moses '] called, according to its meaning, the ' [ram] of perfectioning,' since they [the priests] were about to act as hierophants of mysteries appropriate to the servants (depairevTah) and ministers of God." '
So also Philo's language about the Therapeuts proper, and not the all^orically interpreted temple-sacrificers, is that of the Mysteries, when he writes :
'* Now they who betake themselves to this service (Qepairelav) [of God do so], not because of any custom, or on some one's advice and appeal, but carried away with heavenly love, like those initiated into the Bacchic or Corybantic Mysteries, they are a-fire with Grod until they see the object of their leva" *
These Mysteries were, of course, not to be revealed except to the worthy. Therefore he says :
"Nor because thou hast a tongue and mouth and organ of speech, shouldst thou tell forth all, even things that may not be spoken." ^
» Dt Oigan,, § 12 ; M. L 270, P. 291 (RL ii. 61).
* Philo, apparently, would have it that the sacrifice of the ram, which was a symbol of virility, signified the obligation of chastity prior to initiation into the higher ntes.
» De Fft. AfM., iiL § 17 ; M. ii. 157, P. 676 (Rl iv. 216). The Therapeuts, with Philo, then do not mean " Healers,'' as has been sometimes thought^ but " Servants of Qod."
« D. V. a, § 2 ; M. ii. 473, P. 891 (Ri. v. 806, C. 41, 42).
« Quod Dd. Pot. Intid., § 27 ; M. l 211, P. 174 (Ri. i. 296).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 213
And in the last section of the same treatise he writes:
"Wherefore I think that [all] those who are not utterly without [proper] instruction, would prefer to be made blind than to see things not proper [to be seen], to be made deaf than to hear harmful words, and to have their tongue cut out, to prevent them divulging aught of the ineffable Mysteries. . . . Nay, it is even better to make oneself eunuch than to rush madly into unlawful unions." ^
With which we may usefully compare Matt. v. 29 : ''If thy right eye offend thee, cut it out and cast it from thee " ; and Matt xix. 12 : ** There are some who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens; he that can receive it, let him receive it" Both passages are found in the first Grospel only.
For the comprehension of virtue man requires the reason only ; but for the doing of ill, the evil man re- quires the organs of the body, says our mystic dualist ; ** for how will he be able to divulge the Mysteries, if he have no organ of speech ? " ^
This continual harping on the divulging of the Mysteries, shows that Philo considered it the greatest of all enormities ; we might almost think that he had in view some movement that was divulging part of the mystery-tradition to the untrained populace.
Elsewhere, speaking of those " who draw nigh unto God, abandoning the life of death, and sharing in immortality," he tells us these are the "Naked" — (that is, " naked " of the trammels of the flesh) — who sacrifice all to God. And he adds that only these " are permitted to see the ineffable Mysteries of Grod, who
> Ibid., § 4S ; M. i. 224, P. 186 (RL i. 314). « Leg. AUeg., i. $ 32 ; M. i. 64, P. 59 (Ri. L 87).
214 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
are able to cloak them and guard them " from the mi- worthy.*
With regard to theee Mysteries, they were, as we might expect, divided into the Lesser and the Greater — ^in the former of which the neophytes '' worked on the untamed and savage passions, as though they were softening the [dough' of their] food with reascm
The manner of preparing this divine food, so that it becomes the bread of life, was a mystery.'
One of the doctrines revealed in these Lesser Mysteries was plainly that of the Trinity ; for, commenting on Gen. xviiL 2 : " And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him " — Philo writes :
" * He lifted up his eyes,' not the eyes of his body, for God cannot be seen by the senses, but by the soul [alone] ; for at a fitting time He is discovered by the eyes of wisdom.
*' Now the power of sight of the souls of the many and unrighteous is ever shut in, since it lies dead in deep sleep, and can never respond and be made awake to the things of nature and the types and ideas within her. But the spiritual eyes of the wise man are awake, and behold them ; nay, they are sleeplessly alert, ever watchful from desire of seeing.
" Wherefore it is well said in the plural, that he raised
not one eye, but all the eyes that are in the soul, so
that one would have said that he was altogether all eye.
Having, then, become the eye, he begins to see the holy
and divine vision of the Lord, in such a fashion that the
one vision appeared as a trinity, and the trinity as a
unity."*
> Leg. AUeg., ii § xv. ; M. i. 76, P. 1097 (Ri i. 106).
* Which they brought out of Egypt— that is, the body. » De Saerif., § 16 ; M. L 174, P. 139 (Ri i. 246).
* Qutut. in Gen., iv. § S ; P. Auch. 243 (Ri vii 61).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 215
Elsewhere, referriiig to the same story, and to the words of Abraham to Sarah " to hasten and knead three measures of fine meal, and to make cakes upon the hearth,"^ Fhilo expounds the mystery at length as follows. It refers to that experience of the inner life :
"When (Jod, accompanied by His two highest Potencies, Dominion (apxn) and Groodness, making One [with Himself] in the midst, produces in the seeing soul a triple presentation, of which [three persons] each transcends all measure; for Grod transcendeth all delineation, and equally transcendent are His Potencies, but He [Himself] doth measure all.
" Accordingly, His Groodness is the measure of things good, and His Dominion is the measure of things subject, while He Himself is chief of all, both corporeal and incorporeaL^
** Wherefore also these Potencies, receiving the Season (Zogaa) of His rules and ordinances, measure out all things below them. And, therefore, it is right that these three measures should, as it were, be mingled and blended together in the soul, in order that, being per- suaded that He is Highest God, who transcendeth His Potencies, both making Himself manifest without them, and also causing Himself to be seen in them, it [the soul] may receive His impressions (x^paKTvifKii), and powers, and blessings, and [so] becoming initiate into the perfect secrets, may not lightly disclose the divine Mysteries, but, treasuring them up, and keeping sure silence, guard them in secret.
'^For it is written: 'Make [them] secret,*— for the sacred sermon (Xoyoi/) of initiation (jxwrnsy) about the Ingenerable and about His Potencies ought to be kept
* Gen. xviii. 6.
* That is, apparently, the " good '^ »the " incorporeal," and the ** subject " « the " corporeal"
216 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
secret, since it is not within the power of every man to guard the sacred trust (irapaKaTadiiKfnf) of the divine revelations (opyuovy*J.
CONCKRNING THE SACRSD MaRRIAGB
But the chief of all the mysteries for Philo was, apparently, the Sacred Marriage, the mystic union of the soul, as female, with God, as male (Deo nubere). In this connection he refers to (Jen. iv. 1 :
" And Adam knew his wife. And she conceived and bare Cain. And she said : / ?uive gotten a man by means of the Lord. And He caused her also to bring forth Abel his brother." «
We are, of course, not concerned with the legitimacy or consistency of Philo's allegorising system, whereby he sought to invoke the authority of his national scriptures in support of his chosen doctrines ; but we are deeply concerned with these doctrines themselves, as being the favourite dogmas of his circle and of similar circles of allied mystics of the time.
His views on the subject are clearly indicated, for he tells us in the same passage that he is speaking of a secret of initiation, not of the conception and parturi* tion of women, but of Virtues^ — that is, of the virtuous souL Accordingly he continues in § 13:
" But it is not lawful for Virtues, in giving birth to their many perfections, to have part or lot in a mortal husband. And yet they will never bring forth of themselves, without conceiving their offspring of another.
" Who, then, is He who soweth in them their glorious [progeny], if not the Father of all universal things —
» De Saerif., § 15 ; M. i. 173, 174 ; P. 189 (RL i 244, 246). a D$ Ckemb., § 12 ; M. i. 146, P. 115 (Ri. i. 208).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 217
the Gtxl beyond all genesis, who yet is Sire of every- thing that is ? For, for Himself, Grod doth create no single thing, in that He stands in need of naught ; but for the man who prays to have them [He creates] all things."
And then, bringing forward Sarah, Leah, Bebecca, and Sepphora, as examples of the Virtues who lived with the great prophets of his race, Philo declares that " Sarah " conceived, when Grod looked upon her while she was in solitary contemplation, and so she brought forth for him who eagerly longed to attain to vnsdom — namely, for him who is called "Abraham."
And so also in the case of " Leah," it is said " God opened her womb," which is the part played by a husband ; and so she brought forth for him who under- went the pains of labour for the sake of the Beautiful — namely, for him who is called "Jacob"; "so that Virtue received the divine seed from the Cause [of all], while she brought forth for that one of her lovers who was preferred above all other suitors."
So also when the " all- wise," he who is called " Isaac," went as a suppliant to Grod, his Virtue, " Rebecca," that is Steadfastness, became pregnant in consequence of his suppUcation.
Whereas " Moses," without any supplication or prayer, attained to the winged and sublime Virtue " Sepphora," and found her with child by no mortal husband.^
Moreover, in § 14, in referring to Jeremiah, Philo writes:
"For I, having been initiated into the Great Mysteries by Moses, the friend of Grod, nevertheless when I set eyes upon Jeremiah, the prophet, and learned that he is not only a mystes, but also an adept hiero- phant, I did not hesitate to go to him as his discipla » Ibid., § 18 ; M. i. 147, P. 116, 117 (Ri. i. 809).
218 THRICE-GRSATEST HERMS8
'* And he, in that in much [he says] he is inspired bj Grod, uttered a certain oracle [as] from the Face of God, who said unto the Virtue of Perfect Peace : ' Hast thou not called Me as 'twere House and Father and Husband of thy virginity ? ' ^ — suggesting in the clearest [possibk] fashion that God is both Home, the incorporeal land of incorporeal ideas, and Father of all things, in that He did create them, and Husband of Wisdom, sowing for the race of mankind the seed of blessedness into good virgin soil
"For it is fitting God should converse with an undefiled, an untouched and pure nature, with her who is in very truth the Virgin, in fashion very different from ours.
"For the congress of men for the procreation of children makes virgins women. But when God b^ins to associate with the soul, He brings it to pass that she who was formerly woman becomes virgin again. For banishing the foreign and degenerate and non-virile desires, by which it was made womanish, He substitutes for them native and noble and pure virtues. . . .
" But it is perhaps possible that even a virgin soul may be polluted by intemperate passions, and so dishonoured.
" Wherefore the oracle hath been careful to say that God is husband not of 'a virgin' — ^for a virgin is subject to change and death — but of ' virginity ' [that is of] the idea which is ever according to the same [principles], and in the same mode.
" For whereas things that have qualities, have with their nature received both birth and dissolution, the [archetypal] potencies which mould them have obtained a lot transcending dissolution.
* Jer. iv. 3 — where A.V. tranalates : " Wilt thou not from this time cry onto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth t"
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 219
'' Wherefore is it not fitting that God, who is beyond all generation and all change, should sow [in us] the ideal seeds of the immortal virgin Virtues, and not those of the woman who changes the form of her virginity ? *' ^
But, indeed, as Gonybeare says :
" The words, virgin, virginity, ever-virginal, occur on every other page of Fhilo. It is indeed Fhilo who first ' formulated the idea of the Word or ideal ordering principle of the Cosmos being bom of an ever-virgin soul, which conceives, because (rod the Father sows into her His intelligible rays and divine seed, so beget- ting His only well-beloved son, the Cosmos/''
Thus, speaking of the impure soul, Philo writes :
** For when she is a multitude of passions and filled with vices, her children swarming over her — pleasures, appetites, folly, intemperance, unrighteousness, injustice — she is weak and sick, and lies at death's door, dying ; but when she becomes sterile, and ceases to bring them forth or even casts them from her, forthwith, from the change, she becometh a chaste virgin, and, receiving the Divine Seed, she fashions and engenders marvel- lous excellencies that nature prizeth highly — prudence, courage, temperance, justice, holiness, piety, and the rest of the virtues and good dispositions."^
So also, speaking of the Therapeutrides, he writes :
** Their longing is not for mortal children, but for a deathless progeny, which the soul that is in love with Gh)d can alone bring forth, when the Father hath sown into it the spiritual light-beams, by means of which it
1 D$ Cherub., § 14, 16 ; M. i. 148, P. 116, 117 (RL i. 210, 211).
* In this, however, I ventuie to think that Conybeare is mis- taken ; it was a common dogma of the Hellenistic theology of the time.
* Op. iup. est., pp. 302, 303.
« 1>« J?x0cra of Man in the Mysteries," S. § 26 J.
220 THBICE-GREATEST HERMES
shall be able to contemplate (Oef^peiv) (he laws of wisdom." 1
And as to the progeny of such virgin-mothers, Fhilo elsewhere instances the birth of ''Isaac" — ^'^ which could not refer to any man/' but is '' a synonym of Joy, the best of the blessed states of the soul — Laughter, the spiritually ccmceived (ei^(dderof)' Son of God, Who bestoweth him as a comfort and means of good chev on souls of perfect peace." ^
And a little later on he adds :
*' And Wisdom, who, after the fashion of a mothm, brings forth the self-taught Bace, declares that Grod is the sower of it."*
And yet, again, elsewhere, speaking of this spiritual progeny, Philo writes :
" But all the Servants of Grod (Therapeuts), who are lawfully begotten, shall fulfill the law of [their] nature, which commands them to be parents. For the men shall be fathers of many sons, and the women mothers of numerous children." *
So also, in the case of the birth of Joseph, when his mother, Rachael, says to Jacob : " Give me children ! " — ''the Supplanter, disclosing his proper nature, will reply: 'Thou hast wandered into deep error. For I am not in God's place, who alone is able to open the wombs of souls, and sow in them virtues, and make them pregnant and mothers of good things,* "•
So too, again, in connection with the birth of Isaac, referring to the exultant cry of Sarah : " The Lord hath
» D. F. a., § 8 ; M. il 482, P. 899 (Ri. v. 318, C. 108).
' Elsewhere an epithet of the Logos.
3 De Mut, Norn., § 23 ; M. i. 598, P. 1065 (Ri. iiL 163).
* Ihid.y § 24 ; M. i. 599, P. 1065 (Ri. iii. 184).
« De Pram, tt Pom., § 18 ; M. ii. 425, P. 927 (RI v. 241).
• Leg. AlUg., iii. § 63 ; M. i. 122, 123, P. 94 (RL i. 175). Cf. Gen. XXX. 2 : "Am I in Gkxi's stead ?"
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 221
made me Laughter; for whosoever heareth, rejoiceth with me"^ — Philo bursts forth:
" Open, then, wide your ears, ye mystae, and receive the most holy mysteries. 'Laughter' is Joy, and ' hath made ' is the same as ' hath begotten ' ; so that what is said hath the foUoiving meaning: 'The Lord bath begotten Isaac' — for He is Father of the perfect nature, sowing in the soul and generating blessedness." ^
That all of this was a matter of vital moment for Philo himself, may be seen from what we must regard as an intensely interesting autobiographical passage, in which our philosopher, speaking of the happy child- birth of Wisdom, writes :
" For some she judges entirely worthy of living with her, while others seem as yet too young to support such admirable and wise housensharing; these latter she hath permitted to solemnise the preliminary initiatory rites of marriage, holding out hopes of its [future] consummation.
" ' Sarah,' then, the Virtue who is mistress of my soul, hath brought forth, but hath not brought forth for me — for that I could not, because I was too young, receive [into my soul] her offspring — wisdom, and righteousness, and piety — because of the brood of bastard brats which empty opinions had borne ma
" For the feeding of these last, the constant care and incessant anxiety concerning them, have forced me to take no thought for the legitimate children who are the true citizens.
" It is well, therefore, to pray Virtue not only to bear children, who even without praying brings her fair
* Gen. XXL 6. A.y. : '' Qod hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."
> L$g. AUeg., iii. § 77 ; M. i 131, P. 101 (Ri. i. 187). Cf. alao De Cherub., § 13 ; M. i. 147, P. 115 (Ri. i. 209).
222 THRICB-GRBATEST HSRMB8
progeny to birth, but also to bear sons for u^ so that we may be blessed with a share in her seed and offiipring.
" For she is wont to bear to Grod alone, with thank- fulness repaying unto Him the first-fruits of the thingi she hath received, [to Him] who, Moses says, 'hadi opened ' her ever-virgin ' womb.' " *
But, indeed, Philo is never wearied of reiterating this sublime doctrine, which for him was the consummation of the mysteries of the holy life. Thus, then, again he sets it forth as follows :
" We should, accordingly, understand that the True Beason (Logos) of nature has the potency of both father and husband for dififerent purposes-— of a husband, when he casts the seed of virtues into the soul as into a good field; of a father, in that it is his nature to beget good counsels, and fair and virtuous deeds, and when he hath begotten them, he nourisheth them with those refreshing doctrines which discipline and wisdom furnish.
''And the intelligence is likened at one time to a virgin, at another to a wife, or a widow, or one who has not yet a husband.
"[It is likened] to a virgin, when the intelligence keeps itself chaste and uncorrupted from pleasures and appetites, and griefs and fears, the passions which assault it ; and then the father who begot it, assumes the leadership thereof.
" And when she (intelligence) lives as a comely wife with comely Season {Logos), that is with virtuous Beason, this self-same Beason himself undertakes the care of her, sowing, like a husband, the most excellent concepts in her. "But whenever the soul is bereft of her children of
1 Gen. xxix. 31. Cong. Erud. Oral., § 8 ; M. i. 590, P. 486 (Ri iii. 78).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 223
prudence, and of her marriage with Sight Beason, widowed of her most fair poBsessions, and left desolate of Wisdom, through choosing a blameworthy life — then, let her suffer the pains she hath decreed against herself, with no wise Season to play physician to her transgressions, either as husband and consort, or as father and begetter." ^
Seferring to Jacob's dream of the white, and spotted, and ring-straked, and speckled Mne, Philo tells us that this, too, must be taken as an all^ory of souls. The first class of souls, he says, are " white.*'
''The meaning is that when the soul receives the Divine Seed, the first-bom births are spotlessly white, like unto light of utmost purity, to radiance of the greatest brilliance, as though it were the shadowless ray of the sun's beams from a cloudless sky at noon." ^
With this it is of service to compare the Vision of Hades seen by Thespesius (Aridaeus), and related by Plutarch. Thespesius' guide in the Unseen World draws his attention to the '' colours " and " markings " of the souls as follows :
** Observe the colours of the souls of every shade and sort : that greasy, brown-grey is the pigment of sordid- ness and selfishness ; that blood-red, inflamed shade is a sign of a savage and venomous nature; wherever blue-grey is, from such a nature incontinence in pleasure is not easily eradicated; innate malignity, mingled with envy, causes that livid discoloration, in the same way as cuttle-fish eject their sepia.
"Now it is in earth-life that the vice of the soul (being acted upon by the passions, and re-acting upon the body) produces these discolorations ; while the purification and correction here have for their object
» De Spec. Leg., § 7 ; M. iL 276, P. 774 (Ri. v. 16, 16). > De Som., L § 36 ; M. i 061, P. 696 (RL iii. 867X
224 THRICB-ORAATEST HERMES
the removal of these blemishes, so that the soul may become entirely ray-like and of uniform colour/* ^
Again.ingivingtheallegoricalmeaning of theprimitiTe- culture story of Tamar,* Philo not only interpreta it by the canon of the Sacred Marriage, but also introduosB other details from the Mysteries. Thus he writes:
" For being a widow she was commanded to sit in the House of the Father, the Saviour ; for whose sake for ever abandoning the congress and association with mortal [things], she is bereft and widowed from [all] human pleasures, and receives the Divine quickening, and, full-filled with the Seeds of virtue, conceives, and is in travail with fair deeds. And when she bringp them forth, she carries off the trophies from her adversaries, and is inscribed as victor, receiving as a symbol the palm of victory." '
And every stage of this divine conception is but the shadow of the great mystery of cosmic creation, which Philo sums up as follows :
" We shall, however, be quite correct in saying that the Demiurge who made all this universe, is also at the same time Father of what has been brought into existence; while its Mother is the Wisdom of Him who hath made it — with whom God united, though not as man [with woman], and implanted the power of genesis. And she, receiving the Seed of God, brought forth with perfect labour His only beloved Son, whcnn all may perceive * — this Cosmos."*
^ Dt Ser, Num, VituL, 665 a ; ed. Bern. ill. 459. See, for a translation of the whole ViisiGn, my ''Notes on the Elensinian Mysteries," Th&o§opkical Review (April, May, June, 1896X xxii. 145 ff., 232 ff., 312 ff.
* Qen. xxxviii. 11 ff.
s Quod Deui InmtU,, § 29 ; M. i. 293, P. 313 (Ri. iL 94).
* Lit, "sensible."
6 De EMei., § 8 ; M. i. 361, P. 244 (Ri. i. 189).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 225
CONCSRKINQ THE LOGOS
The idea of Grod found in Philo is that of the more enlightened theology of his time. God is That which transcends all things and all ideas. It would, of course, be a far too lengthy study to marshal the very numerous passages in which our philosopher sets forth his view on Deity; and so we shall select only two passages simply to give the reader who may not be acquainted with the works of the famous Alexandrian, some notion of the transcendency of his conception. For, as he writes:
" What wonder is it if That-which-[really]-is trans- cends the comprehension of man, when even the mind which is in each of us, is beyond our power of knowing? Who hath ever beheld the essence of the soul?"^
This Mystery of Deity was, of necessity, in itself ineffable ; but in conception, it was regarded under two aspects — the active and the passive causative principles.
" The Active Principle, the Mind of the universals, is absolutely pure, and absolutely free from all admixture ; It transcendeth Virtue ; It transcendeth Wisdom ; nay, It transcendeth even the Qood Itself and the Beautiful Itself.
''The Passive Principle is of itself soulless and motionless, but when It is set in motion, and enformed and ensouled by the Mind, It is transformed into the most perfect of all works — namely, this Cosmos."*
This Passive Principle is generally taken by com- mentators to denote Matter; but if so, it must be equated with Wisdom, which we have just seen was regarded by Philo as the Mother of the Cosmos.
1 De MtU. N s DeMund. (>p., § 8 ; M. I 2, P. 8 (Ri. i. 6). VOU L 16
226 THRICE-GRRATEST HKRMSS
But beyond all else Philo is useful to U8 in record- ing the views of contemporary Hellenistic theology concerning the concept of the Logos, the Mystery of the Heavenly Man, the Son of Qod. Even as this word of mystic meaning comes forward in almost every tractate and fragment of our Trismq;istic literature, so in Philo is it the dominant idea in a host of passages.
It should, however, never be forgotten tiiat Philo is but handing on a doctrine; he is inventing nothing. His testimony, therefore, is of the greatest possiUe value for our present study, and deserves the closest attention. We shall accordingly devote the rest of this chapter exclusively to this subject, and marshal the evidence, if not in Philo's own words, at anyrate in as exact a translation of them as we can give; for although much has been written on the matter, we know no work in which the simple expedient of letting Philo speak for himself has been attempted.
The Son of God
The Logos, then, is pre-eminently the Son of Qod, for Philo writes :
'* Moreover God, as Shepherd and King, leads [and rules] with law and justice the nature of the heaven, the periods of sun and moon, the changes and har- monious progressions of the other stars — deputing [for the task] His own Bight Reason {Logo$\ His First- born Son, to take charge of the sacred flock, as though he were the Great King's viceroy." ^
Of this Heavenly Man, who was evidently for Philo the Celestial Messiah of God, he elsewhere writes :
'* Moreover, I have heard one of the companions of Moses uttering some such word {logos) as this : ' Behold > Dt i4pric, S 13 ; M. i. 308, P. 196 (Bi. ii 116).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 227
Man whose name is East/ ^ — a very strange appellation, if you imagine the man composed of body and soul to be meant; but if you take him for that Incorporeal Man in no way differing from the Divine Image, you will admit that the giving him the name of East exactly hits the mark.
" For the Father of things that are hath made him rise as His Eldest Son, whom elsewhere He hath called His First-born, and who, when he hath been begotten, imitating the ways of his Sire, and contemplating His archetypal patterns, fashions the species [of things]." '
Here we notice first of all Philo's graphic manner (a commonplace of the time) of quoting Ezekiel as though he were still alive, and he had heard him speak ; and, in the second place, that the First-born Son is symbolically represented as the Sun rising in the East.
The True High Priest
That, moreover, the Logos is the Son of God, he explains at length in another passage, when writing of the true High Priest:
'* But we say that the High Priest is not a man, but the Divine Season {Logos\ who has no part or lot in any transgressions, not only voluntary errors, but also involimtary ones. For, says Moses, he cannot be defiled either 'on account of his father,' the Mind, nor 'on account of his mother,'* the [higher] Sense — in that, as I think, it is his good fortune to have incorruptible
* Or Rising. Of, Zech. vi. 12— where A.V. translates : "Behold the man whose name is The Branch." Philo, however, follows LXX., but reads tufBpwros instead of i^rtip. The Man-doctrine of the "Poemandres^and of the Naassene Document was a funda- mental one with Philo.
« De ConfuB. Ling,, § 14 ; M. i 414, P. 329 (Rl ii. 262).
» Cy. Lev. xxi. 11.
228 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
and perfectly pure parents, — God for father, who is as well Father of all things, and for mother Wisdom, through whom all things came into genesis ; and because 'his head hath been anointed with oil,' — I mean tus niling principle^ shineth with ray-like brilliance, so that he is deemed fit for robing in his vestures.
''Now the Most Ancient Season {Logos) of That- which-is is vestured with the Cosmos as his robe ; — ^for he wrappeth himself in Earth and Water, Air and Fire, and what comes from them ; the partial soul [doth clothe itself] in body ; the wise man's mind in virtues.
'' And ' he shall not take the mitre from off his head,' [signifies] he shall not lay aside the royal diadem, the symbol of his admirable rule, which, however, is not that of an autocrat^mperor, but of a viceroy.
'^ Nor ' will he rend his garments,' — for the Beaaon {Logos) of That-which-is, being the bond of all things, as hath been said, both holds together all the parts, and binds them, and does not suffer them to be dissolved or separated." *
In another passage Philo treats of the same subject still more plainly from the point of view of the Mysteries, writing as follows:
"For there are, as it seems, two temples of God; — the one is this Cosmos, in which there is also the High Priest, His First-born Divine Season {Logos) \ the other is the rational soul, whose [High] Priest is the True Man, a sensible copy of whom is he who rightly performs the prayers and sacrifices of his Father, who is ordained to wear the robe, the duplicate of the
^ rl iiy*fiwuc4w — that Ia, the authoritative or responsible part of the soul, namely, the reason — a Stoic technical term.
» De Prof., § 20 ; M. L 662, P. 466 (Ri. iiL 133). The quot^ tions look back to Lev. xxi. 10, but the readings in the first two differ from the LXX.
PHILO OP ALEXANDRIA 229
universal heaven, in order that the cosmos may work together with man, and man with the universe." ^
The Elder and Toumges Sons of Qod
The Cosmic Logos is not the sensible cosmos, but the Mind thereof. This Philo explains at length.
"It is then dear, that He who is the generator of things generated, and the artificer of things fashioned, and the governor of things governed, must needs be absolutely wise. He is in truth the father, and artificer, and governor of all in both the heaven and cosmos.
"Now things to come are hidden in the shade of future time, sometimes at short, and sometimes at long distances. But Ood is the artificer of time as welL For He is father of its father ; and time's father is the cosmos, which manifests its motion as the genesis of time ; so that time holds to Grod the place of grandson.
'* For that this cosmos * is the Younger Son of Grod, in that it is perceptible to sense. The Son who's older than this one, He hath declared to be no one [perceiv- able by sense], for that he is conceivable by mind alone. But having judged him worthy of the elder's rights, He hath determined that he should remain with Him alone.
" This [cosmos], then, the Younger Son, the sensible, being set a-moving, has caused time's nature to appear and disappear ; so that there nothing is which future is with Gk)d, who has the very bounds of time subject to Him. For 'tis not time, but time's archetype and paradigm, Eternity (or jEon), which is His life. But
1 De Som^ § 87 ; M. i. 653, P. 697 (Ri iii. 260).
* That is the sensible and not the intelligible cosmos.
230 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
in Eternity naught's past, and naught is future, but all is present only." ^
Trr God ib One
The Logos, then, is not God absolute, but the Son 61 God par excellence, and as such is sometimes referred to as " second," and once even as the " second God." Thus Philo writes :
" But the most universal [of all things] is God, and second the Eeason (Logos) of GoA"*
In his treatise entitled Questions and Answers, however, we read :
" But why does He say as though [He were speaking] about another Grod, 'in the image of God I made " man ",* * but not in His own image ?
" Most excellently and wisely is the oracle propheti- cally delivered. For it was not possible that anything subject to death should be imaged after the supremest God who is the Father of the universes, but after the second God who is His Beason {Logos).
" For it was necessary that the rational impress in the soul of man should be stamped [on it] by the Divine Reason (Logos), since God, who is prior even to His own Beason, transcendeth every rational nature ; [so that] it was not lawful that aught generable should be made like unto Him who is beyond the Beason, and established in the most excellent and the most singular Idea [of all}"*
> Quod Deui /m., § 6 ; M. i. 277, P. 298 (Ri. IL 72, 73).
« Leg, AlUg,, § 21 ; M. I 82, P. 1103 (Ri. i. 113).
' Cy, GexL i. 87. Philo reads i¥ tlK6¥i instead of the icar' cik^rs of LXX., and iirotriffa instead of iwlrifft,
* Namely, in His Reason. The Greek text is quoted by Eusebius, Prtep, Evang^ vii. 13 (M. ii. 626, Ri. vi. 175^ who givei it as from Bk. i. of QMOut. et Solul, The original text is lost, but we have a Latin Version— ^.r. iL § 62 (Ri. vi. 356)— which, how- ever, in this instance, has made sorry havoc of the original
PHILO OP ALEXANDRIA 231
From this passage we see that though it is true Philo calls the Logos the " second God/' he does not depart from his fundamental monotheism, for the Logos is not an entity apart from God, but the Season of God. Nevertheless, this solitary phrase of Philo's is almost invariably trotted out in the forefront of all enquiry into Philo's Logos-doctrine, in order that the difference between this phrase and the wording of the Proem to the Fourth Gospel may be insisted on as strongly as possible for controversial apologetical purposes.
That, however, Philo is a strict monotheist may be seen from the following passage, in which he is com- menting on the words of Gen. xxxi. 13 : '' I am the God who was seen by thee in the place of God " ^ — where, apparently, two Gods are referred to.
'* What, then, should we say ? The true God is one ; they who are called gods, by a misuse of the term, are many. On which account the Holy Word * has, on the present occasion, indicated the true [God] by means of the article, saying : ' I am ^A^ God ' ; but the [one so named] by misuse of the term, without the article, saying : ' who was seen by thee in the place,' not of t?ie Qod, but only 'of God.' And what he (Moses) here calls • God ' is His Most Ancient Word {Logos)!* ^
The Logos is Lifs and Light
This Logos, moreover, is life and light. For, speaking of Intelligible or Incorporeal *' Spirit " and •* light," Philo writes :
1 Philo and LXX. both have : ir rht^ 0«oC" ; whereas A.V. translates: "I am the God of Bcth^ "—that is, the « House or Place of El or God."
' Here meaning the Inspiration of Scripture.
s Dt Som^ i. § 39 ; M. i. 655, P. 599 (Ri. iii. 262, !
232 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
" The former he [ because it is the most life-giving thing [in the imiverael and Grod is the cause of life ; and the latter the light [of Grod], because it is by far the most beautiful thing [in the universe].
" For by so much more glorious and more brilliant is the intelligible [Light] than the visible, as, methinki, the sun is than darkness, and day than night, and the mind, which is the guide of the whole soul, than the sensible means of discernment, and the eyes than the body.
"And he calls the invisible and intelligible Divine Reason {Logos) the Image of God. And of this [Image] the image [in its turn] is that intelligible light, which has been created as the image of the Divine Beaaon who interprets it [that is, Light's] creation.
" [This Light] is the [One] Star, beyond [all] heavens, the Source of the Stars that are visible to the senses, which it would not be beside the mark to call All- brilliancy, and from which the sun and moon and the rest of the stars, both errant and fixed, draw their light, each according to its power." ^
The necessity and reason of forming some such concept of the Logos is that man cannot bear the utter transcendency of God in His absoluteness. And apply- ing this idea further to theophanies in human form, Philo writes :
''For just as those who are unable to look at the sun itself look upon its reflected rays as the sun, and the [light-] changes round the moon, as the moon itself, so also do men regard the Image of God, His Angel, Season (Logos), as Himself." *
» De Mund, Op., § 8 ; M. L 6, 7, P. 6 (Ri. i. 11). « De S
philo of alexandria 233
The Divine Vision
Such Divine Vision is the object of the contemplative life, for :
" It IB the special gift of those who dedicate them- selves to the service (OepaTrevovTcav) of That-which- is . . . to ascend hj means of their rational faculties to the height of the aether, setting before themselves 'Moses' — the £ace that is the friend of 6od,^ as the leader of the way.
** For then they will behold ' the place that is clear/ ' on which the immovable and unchangeable God hath set His feet, and the [regions] beneath His feet, as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as it might be the form of the firmament of heaven, the sensible cosmos, which he [' Moses '] symbolises by these things.
"For it is seemly that those who have founded a brotherhood for the sake of wisdom, should long to see Him ; and if they cannot do this, to behold at least His Image, Most Holy Reason {Logos)^ and after him also the most perfect work in [all] things sensible, [namely] this cosmos.
" For the work of philosophy is naught else than the striving clearly to see these things." ^
The Sons of God on Eabth
And later on, in the same treatise (§ 28), Philo writes still more interestingly and instructively as follows :
1 This IB the Race of the Logos.
> Cf, Ex. xxiv. 10. A.y. does not render this reading, but